t for an instant very still, then drew
her hand away, got out her handkerchief and passed it across her eyes.

"Now we can talk," she said, in another tone. "You may choose the
subject."

Dan pulled himself together.

"Oh, any subject will do," he laughed. "Ships or shoes or
sealing-wax--just so you do the talking."

And he got out his pipe and filled it with trembling fingers. He was
absurdly happy.

CHAPTER XVII

THE FIRST CONFERENCE

In the Captain's cabin, meanwhile, another conference was going forward,
and one of a very different character from that on the after boat-deck.
The curtains had been carefully drawn, and three men sat facing each
other. They were Ignace Vard, Pachmann, and the young man whom he
addressed habitually as "Prince." Vard was on the divan in the corner of
the room, the others lounged in two luxuriously upholstered chairs which
had been wheeled in front of the divan. Their attitudes suggested
careless unconcern, but their eyes were glowing with repressed
excitement. Cigars and liqueurs were on a table between them, and the
air was blue with smoke.

The Captain had been chatting with a group of passengers when Pachmann's
card was handed to him, but, after a glance at it, he excused himself at
once.

"Show the gentlemen to my cabin," he said to the messenger, and himself
hastened to it. There, a moment later, Pachmann and the Prince appeared.

"It is necessary that we have a conference to-night," said Pachmann,
"with this Ignace Vard. It must be in a room where we cannot by any
possibility be overheard."

"It is, I suppose, an affair of state?" asked the Captain.

"Yes; of the first importance."

"My cabin, then, is at your disposal."

"Thank you, sir," said Pachmann. "There could be no better place. I was
hoping that you would offer it."

"You will understand, sir," Hausmann went on, stroking his beard
nervously, "that an explanation of all this will have to be made to my
company."

"I will see that a satisfactory explanation is made, sir," Pachmann
assented.

The Captain nodded his relief.

"That is what I desire. I will have Vard brought to you," he said,
saluted and withdrew.

He sent a messenger for the inventor, waited until he had entered, and
then summoned a sailor and posted him as a sentry outside the door, with
instructions to permit no one else to enter or even knock. Then he had
another man stretch a rope across the deck some twenty feet abaft the